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Eyes to the Sky

July 27 - 31, 2015

New Horizons scientists use enhanced color images to detect differences in the composition and texture of Pluto's surface. When close-up images are combined with color data from the Ralph instrument, it paints a new and surprising portrait of the dwarf planet. Image taken from a distance 280,000 miles. As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by and beyond Pluto on Tuesday (July 14), it carried with it the ashes of the American astronomer who discovered the dwarf planet in 1930.

Blue Moon, Pluto and Earth 2.0

"... the ways by which men arrive at knowledge of the celestial things are hardly less wonderful than the nature of these things themselves"

- Johannes Kepler

News of two phenomenal NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) initiatives peaked last week. Pictures and analysis from the July 14th New Horizons Pluto flyby were long anticipated. (See The Broadsheet Daily June 8-12) Added to the excitement of that scientific achievement, which took human eyes 3.5 billion miles to the edge of our solar system, came the announcement of the discovery of a possible earthlike planet 1,400 light years away. One light year is 6 trillion miles.

The planet, known as 452b, is also confidently called Earth 2.0. It was identified by researchers analyzing data received from the Kepler space telescope that was launched in 2009 to survey part of our Milky Way Galaxy for exoplanets. Orbiting 64 million miles above Earth, Kepler has discovered 1,030 planets to date. A dozen are orbiting within the "habitable zone" around other stars. Earth 2.0 is the best of these.

Artist's concept drawing of possible Earth 2.0 announced on July 23, 2015

As described by Space.com in 2009, "The mission's science instrument, called a photometer, contains the largest camera ever flown in space. Its 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) will detect slight dips in starlight, which occur when planets passing in front of their stars partially block the light from Kepler's view."

This year, we enjoyed a full moon on the first day of July and experience an encore on the last day of the month. The encore is known as a Blue Moon, for the relative rarity of the occasion. The Full (Blue) Moon rises at 8:14pm on Friday.